e's talons.

"_The old ... wouldn't understand if he did._"

DeVore grinned. "_See what you mean. Well, guess I'm the next victim._"

He stepped to the door and tapped.

"Come in."

Morely looked up as his Fiscal Chief entered, then swept some papers
aside. "Well, what do _you_ want?"

DeVore held out the letter. "You wanted to see me, sir, about this." He
placed the paper within the reach of his superior, who snatched at it,
held it up for a moment, then dropped it to his desk.

"Yes, I did. What can we do about it?"

"Why," DeVore spread his hands slightly, "we'll have to comply."

"That isn't what I meant, Idiot! How can we continue to receive the
payments from Consolidated?"

"I don't think we can, sir. If Central Coordinating wants to put the
device on a national basis, we can't do anything about it."

Morely looked down at the letter, then glared searchingly at DeVore.
"The way I read this," he declared, "they want to distribute
manufacturing rights on the communicator to plants in other regions than
this. Right?"

"Yes, sir."

"But they don't say anything about our continuing the Consolidated
payments on an overwrite basis, for the sale of devices they may make.
Now, do they?"

"No, sir. But that's implied. In cases like this, Central always takes
over all rights." DeVore hesitated. "I believe regulations--"

"I don't care what's implied, DeVore. And I don't care what you
believe. All I see is what's in this letter. They want to distribute the
manufacturing load, and I'm quite willing that they should. I want to
continue receiving the payments from Consolidated. Now, you arrange it
so that they're satisfied and I'm satisfied."

[Illustration]

"But that'll mean Consolidated will have to pay double. We can't--"

"Don't say 'can't' to me!" Morely held up a hand angrily. "DeVore, I'm
not going to tell you how to do this. I want it done. The details are
your affair, and if I have to teach you your business, I'll get someone
who can do things without having to have them spelled out to him." He
leaned back, to glare at DeVore.

"Now, get on the job. I told you to make arrangements for me so that we
will retain our payments from Consolidated. And I'm not interested in
what arrangements you make with them, or what arrangements they make
with Central. Is that a simple enough order for you to understand?"

"Yes, sir. I understand all right. But--"

"Good! I'm glad I managed to get at least one si